Democrat Worries About Possible Democratic Takeover

Not every Democrat is excited about the possibility of their party finally taking over the State Senate.

A Democratic member of the Assembly I spoke to earlier today seemed downright morose about the possibility. “For those of us Democrats who have more of a moderate economic bent, and represent a significant portion of the business community, we’re a little bit concerned,” the assembly member said.

This person said, “It’s one thing when you’re not in the position of power to say you’re going to do all these things. It’s another thing to bring them to fruition and actually have to be responsible for taking these positions and passing these laws.”

And because of their longtime position in the minority, this person said, Senate Democrats have been able to stake out impractical positions.

“They’ve had the freedom to be able to not have the responsibility of governing. They can vote against the tax increases in order to do the budget but they can vote for the spending, so they can say to people, ‘I delivered X amount of dollars for programs you care about.’ But nobody is going to attack them for how they got the money to pay for these programs. Now they’re going to have the responsibility of having to pay for the things they want and take the tough votes that may irritate some members of their district. It’s a whole different responsibility.”

The assembly member warned the Senate Democrats (and voters, it seemed) to be careful what they wish for.

“The same way people voted for Democrats to take back Congress and expect all these things to happen, now Congress has a 20 percent or 15 percent approval rating because it didn’t happen. I think you’re going to see the same thing happen to the Senate. They’ve been saying, ‘Once we take over, the heavens will open up and all these things will happen. But it’s not going to happen.”